Woman gets back diamond bracelet lost in sand dunes

Anaheim resident Robyn Giranda never thought she'd see her diamond tennis bracelet after losing it in sand dunes last summer.

But nine months later, Giranda got a call that it was found at the beach. And the man who found the bracelet, later estimated to be worth $20,000, wanted to return it.

"I cannot tell you how surprising and amazing and what great guy this person is," Giranda said Sunday.

In June, Giranda was at the sand dunes near Pismo Beach with her then-12-year-old son. It was his first time riding an all-terrain vehicle known as a "quad," and she was nervous. The wind had picked up, and she worried that it would create unexpected dips and dangerous conditions.

Giranda always wore the 18-karat-gold bracelet with 9 carats of diamonds and even had a tan line from it.

She had bought the bracelet for $7,000 with money she received after her father died almost nine years earlier, as a last gift from him. Friends had jewelry stolen during burglaries, so Giranda preferred to keep hers on.

"I forgot I had my jewelry on. It wasn't even a thought in my head," said Giranda, 46.

At the end of the day, Giranda realized the bracelet was gone. She made a minimal attempt to find it, knowing it was buried in the sand.

"I was just absolutely disgusted," Giranda said. "I just knew I was never going to see it again."

She reluctantly made a report with the park ranger, only because her boyfriend insisted. "I figured they'd never find it. And if so, they were never ever going to turn it in," Giranda said.

Fast forward to February, on President's Day weekend.

Retired Modesto firefighter Joe Mingham headed out early to the dunes to take a quad ride before the crowds came, reports the Modesto Bee.

In the sand, Mingham saw something like a chain sticking up, he told Giranda. It was the bracelet.

"It was so banged up he didn't think it was real," Giranda said.

Mingham took it to some jeweler friends. They cleaned it up and got an appraisal: It was worth between $17,000 and $20,000.

Mingham knew that someone was upset about it, and he set out to find the owners, according to the Modesto Bee. He called around to police, the state parks department and finally the Pismo State Beach park ranger. There, the ranger remembered the missing-bracelet report. The ranger called Giranda and told her that someone might have found the bracelet.

"I got chills as soon as she said that," Giranda said.

After describing it, the ranger gave Giranda and Mingham each other's email addresses.

On April 6, Giranda and a friend drove six hours to Modesto to pick up the bracelet. "I couldn't stop smiling," Giranda said.

She wanted to take Mingham to a steak lunch, but Mingham insisted on paying. So, she still owes him a dinner at Pismo Beach.